by Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports

by Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports

ATLANTA - Striking an often defiant tone, NCAA President Mark Emmert spent much of his Final Four press conference on Thursday defending his record and that of college sports' governing body as continuing controversy around the organization threatened to overshadow its marquee event.

Instead of a celebration of the Final Four and its 75th anniversary, Emmert's 41-minute meeting with the news media became a referendum on the challenges the NCAA faces. If his appearance was casual - the often buttoned-up Emmert taking questions without a suit coat or tie, his collar left unbuttoned -Emmert's tenor was not.

Emmert trumpeted reforms from the past year, highlighting changes to the rulebook, academic-progress rates and the enforcement process. But after his 17-minute opening statement, he spent the rest of the press conference at the Georgia World Congress Center addressing questions critical of several recent problems and news developments.

"Some of the criticisms about change or what's going on naturally get leveled with the guy at the top," Emmert said.

Emmert took that criticism in the form of questions about news stories that thus far have loomed over the NCAA's premier championship. Among them are three this week that prove to be troubling:

Former New York Times and Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts wrote on Roopstigo.com Wednsday about a culture of academic fraud, payment of players and recruiting violations during Auburn's 2010 football championship season. The NCAA has already been criticized for its handling of the eligibility case of Heisman-winning quarterback Cam Newton, whose father was found to have shopped his son around during his recruitment from junior college.

"What there is is a newspaper story. That's it," Emmert said. "We haven't done anything with that case because we don't know anything about it. â?¦ If allegations of that kind are true, we deal with them."

Also on Wednesday, a USA TODAY Sports investigation showed Emmert's own history of dodging blame when scandals befell the universities where he was a high-ranking official . He said he was proud of his record, telling reporters to check with people on the campuses where he worked, but dodged a question about what was factually inaccurate about the story.

"Everywhere I've been I've been asked by boards or other bosses to help drive change," Emmert said. "You can't make large-scale change or even modest change in any enterprise without people that find problems with them or concerns with them."

The firing of Rutgers coach Mike Rice this week after ESPN obtained a video of him cursing at players in practice, using gay slurs, shoving them and throwing basketballs at them overshadowed the four teams here.

The recent headlines come in addition to ongoing problems for the NCAA, including its mishandling of the Miami investigation and a series of lawsuits. "If you're not getting sued today, you're not doing anything," he quipped.

Emmert balked at continued conversation about the NCAA's mistakes in the Miami case, in which the enforcement staff paid the attorney of convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro. "We had problems there," Emmert said. "We're fixing them and we're moving on."

His tone often defensive, sometimes incredulous and seldom relaxed during the question-and-answer part of the press conference, Emmert offered little new information on the problems the NCAA faces. Disagreeing with the premise of one reporter's question, Emmert told him he wasn't trying to "pick a fight."

To a reporter who had written Emmert should lose his job after the NCAA's mishandling of the Miami case, "By the way, thanks for the career advice. Kept my job anyway."

Emmert has, and spent much of Thursday defending it, adding to recent scandals casting a cloud over the Final Four.